Apparatus for stretching and drying rugs.



606 ATTORNEY.

Pate nted Sept. 3, IQOI.

lNVENTOR Mfg,

BY m. M

A. S. LYON.

(Application flledSept. 1, 1900.)

| I 1 I I I 1 No. 6a|,922.

APPARATUS FOR STBETGHING AND DRYING BUGS.

(No Model.)

WITNESSES.

UNITED STATES PATENT Trice.

ALVIN S.LYON, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO BIGELOYV CARPET COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE AND CLINTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING RUGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 681,922, dated September 3,1901. Application filed September 1, 1900. Serial No. 28,754, (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALVIN S. LYON, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Stretching and Drying Rugs, of which the following is-a specification.

My invention relates to apparatus for stretching and drying rugs, such as are made by sewing together the edges of breadths or sections of \Vilton or similar carpeting. In manufacturing these carpet breadths the warp-threads (of hemp or linen) are glued or sized and dried before being placed in the loom and the filling-threads are woven while wet with glue, so that the rug-sections after being dried are very stiff and unmanageable by ordinary means and the edges of the sections necessarily puckered in matching the figure during the sewing. It is therefore necessary to flatten the rug after the sewing is completed. This is usually accomplished by stretching the sewed rug face downward upon a floor into proper rectangular shape, meanwhile securing the edges in position by tacks or small nails driven through the margins of the rug into the floor, then moistening the glue by wetting the back of the rug with water or preferably with thin liquid sizing, pressing and pounding the wrinkles out of the rug and flattening the seams by means of a hot iron, and then allowing the rug to dry upon the floor before removing the tacks. The rug after being thus treated is flat and unwrinkled, and this flatness is maintained by the setting of the glue. It is inconvenient for the workman to stoop in nailing the rug upon the floor and in drawing the tacks after the rug is dry; but the great objection to this method is the immense amount of floor-space necessary in carrying on a large business, because the rugs must be upon the floor for many hours to become perfectly dry, and the rugs do not, of course, dry very rapidly, as only one face of the rug is exposed to the air.

I provide means whereby both faces of the rug after stretching and ironing may be simultaneously exposed to theatmospliere and by which the rug may be set on edge while drying, thus occupying but very little floorspace, and that little for a much shorter time than is usually required.

My invention consists in the devices and combinations hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of my improved apparatus, parts of the table-frame and of the supports of the rugstretching frames being in dotted lines; Fig. 2, an end elevation of the same, partly in vertical section; Fig. 3, a plan of a rug secured to a stretching-frame.

A indicates a flat surface or table, which for convenience of tacking and untacking the rug is preferably elevated sufficiently to allow the operative to stand while at work-,'but-' which may rest directly upon the floor. The table is represented, therefore, as having a top a, legs a, and a truss consisting of a rectangular part a, braces a arranged at right angles to the sides and ends of said part a, and other diagonally-arranged braces a The braces a a project horizontally beyond the sides and ends of the top a (which rests upon said braces) and form supporters or brackets on which is sustained a removable rugstretching frame B, which surrounds and fits said top a and is of the same vertical thickness as said top, so that the upper surfaces of said frame B and top lie in the same horizontal plane, said frame B forming a marginal extension of said top. The rug C to be operated upon is placed face downward on the table and frame B and is stretched and tacked at its edges to said frame and is then treated to soften the glue and to flatten the rug in the usual manner above described, the table-top and margin or frameB serving instead of the floor. After the rvg is properly flattened the frame B, with said rug attached thereto, as shown in Fig. 3, is removed from the-table and set awayto allow the rug to dry, being preferably placed on edge in a suitable rack of any usual construction adapted to hold said frame in a vertical position and out of contact with other similar frames supported by said rack. The table may then be used immediately with another frame, precisely like the frame B, to stretch another rug, and by keeping on hand a sufficient number of such frames the work may proceed without interruption, and the floor-space occupied by many rugs while drying in an erect position will be no greater than that usually taken up by a single rug dried on the floor. Another frame B, large enough to surround and fit the frame B and of the same thickness, may be used for a rug larger than said frame B in the same manner by treating said frame B as a part of the table and leaving it on the table when the frame B is removed with the rug. By making the supporting-brackets or projecting parts of the braces long enough several such progressively-larger frames may be used to Vary the surfaces of the table to accommodate rugs of different sizes.

I claim as my invention 1. The combination of a table having a flat surface to sustain the central portion of a rug, a support projecting beyond the edges of the table, a detachable frame adapted to be carried on said support and surrounding the fiat surface, the top of the detachable frame and the said fiat surface beingin substantially the same plane.

v 2. The combination of a table havinga top, supporting-braces for said top extending beyond the edges of said top, and a detachable frame adapted to be carried by said braces and surrounding said top, the surfaces of the top and the detachable frame when in position upon the supporting-braces being in substantially the same plane.

3. The combination ofa table provided with a top, braces supporting said top and projecting beyond the edges thereof, a plurality of removable stretching-frames adapted to surround said top one within the other, and be supported on said braces, each of said frames having its upper surface in the same plane to provide a plane surface for the support of a rug while being secured to the stretchingframe.

4. The combination of a table,provided with supporting-brackets, and a removable frame or margin, adapted to surround and fit said table and to rest upon said brackets with its upper surface in the same plane as the top of said table.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ALVIN S. LYON.

Witnesses:

ALBERT M. MOORE, GRACE M. BOYNTON. 

